hello all

Thu, 2007-03-01 13:33 — kylewilliam

hey guys - thanks for the notes and emails - I'm doing OK - not knitting a lot right now - just recovering from the trauma of spending a week back home in Indiana/Kentucky - dealing with families and the will and trust, etc. it's all frustrating and confusing - I have never dealt with any of it.

Death is the pits - it's a confusing event that throws tons of emotions in a big pit - it makes the most mundane tasks impossible to accomplish and the most insignificant things soooo important.

today (and this past while) my focus has been on getting access to the family photos - I want to send them all out to get them scanned and copied so that they are archived. When I went to visit my mom (mom and dad were divorced about a year ago) she gave me dad's family tree - so I have bought Reunion 8 (macintosh!) and I have been happily plugging in people - and I have discovered that I can put photos with the names, etc. it's all very interesting - I am hoping to record the history in a current medium (instead of floppy disks or scribbled on carbon copy typing paper) so that future folks in my family might not forget those people who are around now.

of course, my sister that has the trust (the house and everything in it) is keeper of the photos - where they sit in cardboard boxes in the basement (wet, damp, could flood!) - and she is being really difficult. It will be a process - but hopefully sanity will prevail and I'll get to copy the photos... I also would like a few other personal items that were my dads, but I'm mostly hoping to preserve the family history.

Comments

This is a difficult time; nothing I can say will help, but know that we do care.

Trying to get anything right now from anyone holding the estate is going to be near impossible, so don't try. Keep in touch, and wait. She is having her own troubles to deal with, and can't deal with your requests right now. Spend time in entering the data into your program. And yes, make back ups of your data! (you probably know that I have some experience in this matter)

Those programs are really great! I couldn't get all the members of my family in order without it. And I did learn a lot from it as well. It's not an easy project... just take your time. You CAN print out all the information later on into book form, and that is greatly appreciated by the family. Keep in touch with your sister, and after a time, let her know that you have been working on the family tree, and find it fascinating! Also let her know that you were trying to collect some pics to include in there as well; does she have any of so-and-so? And maybe with time, and when she shares your enthusiasm, she will share some of those photos, or at least let you be responsible for them if she doesn't care about them. It takes diplomacy!

thanks guys - I have pretty much decided not to worry about what might happen - I have enough memories - and I have a few items that were my dads - life's too short to take up time worrying about if I will or won't get access to photos... I am going to send off the family photos I have and get them scanned - and I'm going to do my part to make sure that everyone has access to those pictures - if I take steps, maybe others will follow :)